Antipodal
Joined: 26 Mar 2009Posts: 222Location: The other side of the world

Posted: Sat 04 Dec 2010, 16:01 Post subject:
Updating the readers (part 2)Subject description: Introduction to things that have happened since the first days of October

As I have explained in previous posts on this thread (Sun 07 Mar 2010 17:08 and Thu 25 Nov 2010 14:07) in the period extending from the first days of February 2010 to the first days of October, with the DVD in the drive, when I switched on the computer, Puppy's screen didn't appear, the system booted smoothly into XP and I only had the problems that everybody has using XP.

Since the first days of October 2010 when I changed my LiteOn DVD drive for a new Samsung DVD drive, things have changed and though I've described what has happened with Puppy I haven't told you what has happened with XP.

That is because at first I thought they were irrelevant coincidences that were distorted by my imagination. But because as time passes and the more I insist in booting with Puppy the more bizarre are the symptoms I feel the need of describing what has been happening.

I will do that in my next post because the description is rather complex and I must now meet some postponed obligations.

I hadn't time to press the F2 key and while Puppy was loading the kernel, to RAM the computer was powered off.

To deal with unreliable booting, you will need others to give advice, as it's not something I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. My only suggestion is that you look back at your own post here http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51906&start=39 and try the acpi=off idea. During boot-up, press <F2> and type: puppy acpi=off pfix=ram

Other than that, I'm out of ideas. But at least you have shown the live CD is a practicable proposition, even if it was a fluke.

Not all puppies are compatible with all hardware. It could turn out that you need to try a different puppy. If stuck for help, maybe try puppy Squeeze next. I think its known as Dpup 009 but there may be a newer version out. I'm not specifically recommending it for you, as I don't know enough about it, but I like the Dpup family. http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=59867&start=990

But now try your old Pup431 live DVD and see whether it's behaving any better.

If you successfully boot into puppy, you can use puppy to check the md5sum of any file or DVD.
MENU >UTILITY >RXVT TERMINAL and type on the command line as I described earlier.

I may have a different prospective that may help in this case. As my signature says, "It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others". I have a 100 cd spindle of blanks. They were cheap when I bought them and I've had them for years. I've burned quite a few into Linux live cds. They work for awhile. They work in some drives but not others. They work some times and not others and occasionally will start to load but then shut the computer down. I usually grab another cd I've burned and go on. Sometimes, if I can find a Sharpie, I'll write coaster on one that's bad. If I use better cds I have much better reliability.

For years all I did with cds was burn music to them. That's a good use for cheap cds. When I started burning bootable cds my standards changed. I see a lot of bad cds. That's what this looks like to me.

Just in case someone remembers the problems I was having in March with 3 computers, this was NOT the problem then._________________It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Meddle Not In The Affairs Of Dragons For You Are Crunchy And Taste Good With Ketchup

I don`t think your problems is neither the cd or cd-rom.
It may be bad sectors on your hard disk or something like that.
Try to wipe out your hard disk and restart without the hard disk connected. If that does not help, try the same with the RAM chips.

I have wondered about RAM--despite no documented problems with XP. (Though, now you mention it, OP has hinted darkly at something odd with XP ...... )

There is no reason why he shouldn't reseat the chips though. As he assembled it himself, he should feel comfortable pulling out each RAM module and pushing it back in. Blow any dust from the sockets before reinserting module. That has cured many a boot or runtime problem, and is easy to try.

With "wipe-out" I mean physically disconnect the hard disk.
I got a laptop from a friend with exactly the same problems, and the same error message.
It was impossible to start the live CD with this computer.
I took out the hard drive, and then it started immediately.
Although everything is loaded to ram, it will be read during startup from the hard disk.
I guess everyone has noticed that on the desktop are icons that show your drives.
This can not puppy know anything about, if not reading info from the drives.
Do not claim that this is the solution for you, but worth a try.
If nothing else than for the elimination.

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